British Steel’s Accountants to Pocket Half of Proceeds From Sale
British Steel’s Accountants to Pocket Half of Proceeds From Sale
(Bloomberg) -- Ernst & Young LLP is set to get up to half of the proceeds from the sale of British Steel Ltd.’s assets to China’s Jingye Group Co., the Sunday Telegraph reported.
The accountants, appointed as “special managers” by the Official Receiver in May, receive 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) per week under their contract, the newspaper reported.
Jingye last week offered 70 million pounds to buy the U.K. troubled steelmaker, subject to the completion of due diligence and regulatory approvals. Liquidators will be the first creditors in line to be paid once the deal closes, expected in January or February, according to the Telegraph.
Jingye will be purchasing British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant, plus other assets in the U.K., France and the Netherlands, it said in a statement on Monday. The Chinese company plans to invest 1.2 billion pounds in British Steel over the next decade, but didn’t say how much it was paying for the assets.
Caught in a generalized decline of the steel industry, the U.K.’s No. 2 steelmaker was put into liquidation in May, just three years after being acquired by private equity firm Greybull Capital LLP for 1 pound.
To contact the reporter on this story: Antonio Vanuzzo in London at avanuzzo@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Davis at abdavis@bloomberg.net, Amy Teibel, James Amott
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